Until Brazeau’s suspension without pay on Tuesday, 20% of his salary was being withheld – an arrangement meant to continue over two years – so the Senate could recoup the $48,745 it concluded he owed for improper housing and travel claims. But with the Quebec senator no longer on the payroll, that plan has been derailed.

Claude Carignan, the government leader in the Senate, who spearheaded the plan to strip senators Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin of everything except their titles and benefits, directed questions about Brazeau’s repayment to the Senate’s administration.

Annie Joannette, a Senate spokesperson, said information about how the red chamber will recover money from the suspended senator “is not available at this time.” A separate statement released by the Senate late in the day said its administration “is currently studying the technicalities” of the motions.

“Senator Carignan, who has the entire federal bureaucracy at his disposal, should be able to answer this question,” said Senate Opposition Leader James Cowan, who does not know how the Senate will recover the money. Cowan abstained from voting on the suspensions Tuesday after trying unsuccessfully to have them referred to a special committee for study.

“(Carignan) is the one who introduced these motions and amended them to include benefits without consulting anyone on our side. He then proceeded to ram them through the Senate without allowing for a committee process to evaluate their full consequences,” Cowan said.

Toronto-based employment lawyer Howard Levitt said he suspects the government can only reclaim its money through the courts — which is where he believes the issue is now heading.

“They actually have to actually go to court and sue him to get the money back,” Levitt said. “In a case like the Senate, of course the government has to show that it’s protecting the taxpayers’ money, so it may well go after him.”

Brazeau’s expense claims were sent to the private auditing firm Deloitte in February amid concerns that he spent too little time at a declared primary residence in Maniwaki, Que. while collecting a Senate allowance to rent a home in the Ottawa area. Deloitte found that Brazeau spent less than 10 per cent of his time in Maniwaki between April 2011 and September 2012, but it also noted that Senate residency rules were unclear.

Despite Deloitte’s findings, an investigation by the Senate’s internal economy committee later declared that residency rules were “amply clear” and the limited time Brazeau spent in Maniwaki was “contrary to the meaning of the word ‘primary.’ ” Brazeau was ordered to pay back $48,745 with interest.

He failed do this by a June 28 deadline and received a letter from the Senate’s internal economy committee in July which informed him that he would lose one-fifth of his pay until the federal government recovered the money it was owed. Given that the base annual salary for a senator is $135,200, the 20% clawback would have seen Brazeau reimbursing the Senate about $2,250 a month for approximately 21 months.

Brazeau has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying he followed the rules and that his expenses had been approved by Senate finance.

“I am not guilty of what some of these people are accusing me of,” he told the Senate Monday night, a day before his colleagues voted to suspend him without pay for the next two years.

Debby Simms, Brazeau’s adviser until his suspension, said she didn’t know how much Brazeau had already repaid or whether new arrangements were being made to reclaim the money.

Wallin and Duffy, the two other suspended senators, have both paid back the money the Senate said they owed — Wallin with personal cheques and Duffy with a $90,000 boost from Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s former chief of staff.

Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially said Wright had resigned over the payment, the prime minister later said he was “dismissed.”